There’s less than 10 years between Coke and Brad’s Drink, with the latter being developed in 1893 and Coca Cola coming in just 5 years earlier in 1888.
Yet, Coke’s red can and distinctive bottle is much more popular and is the household name for fizzy juice. Pepsi has always struggled to keep up and consistently, changing their logo every so often to freshen things up. While Coke has barely touched theirs.
Pepsi has also aired numerous advertising campaigns to try and bring their brand knowledge up and knock big red off the top spot, from an odd video featuring Kendall Jenner, sponsoring the Super bowl halftime show, having tongue in cheek battles with it’s competitors, to finally succumbing to defeat by accepting that people always ask ‘Is Pepsi Ok’ when Coke isn’t available at your favourite restaurant.
To hopefully regain some momentum, Pepsi is rebranding once again.
Pepsi’s brand has always been an issue. I was always put off by the logo, there was something about the bland typography and the way the red and blue circular design sat that didn’t really work. For me there was no shelf appeal. It didn’t stand out as much as the cans of coke did.
Then they did this.
Somebody suddenly flicked a switch in Pepsi HQ and they announced they were switching things up. Again. Was it a Burger King or Gap? What were we going to get? Internally questions would be raised about the direction of travel. Do you go back to your roots and use an older logo, you can’t go too far back otherwise you’ll look like a copycat. Or do you head to the future, make a bold new look that stands out.
The choice they made was clear. They went bold and new. Deciding to take influences from previous logos, this new version taking some influence from the 1960s logos, and build this new identity. What do you think, a success or a flop?
What was wrong with previous designs?
As a brand, Pepsi has always lacked appeal. It doesn’t really stand out, it’s always quite basic, and for some reason the branding guidelines are incredibly confusing and complex. No good.
They needed to shake off this boring style and look at something new. Something that would jump out at you when you’re wandering around the shop or looking at adverts.
They couldn’t go to their original logo because that would look too much like they’re copying their main competitor. They could go all the way back to their Brad’s Drink roots,this would be interesting but expensive. A global brand like this can’t afford to suddenly change their name and it would take years of building up that reputation again.
I think this new design is a success.
What matters in the world of product brand design is shelf appeal. Things need to stand out and grab attention, you’ve only got a few seconds in the supermarket to win someone over, for the best examples of this battle I’d recommend heading down the alcohol aisle, wines and craft beer manufacturers have been fine tuning this for years.
With their new bold typeface right on the front of the bottles and cans, the name doesn’t shy away from you like the previous version did (could you even see pepsi on the first image?). The use of the fruit and colours across the branding when introducing different flavours really hits you in their campaigns.
Compare this to major competitors and it’s a huge step forward. Against Coca Cola this new style certainly looks like it can stand the test of time a little bit more, and will become something that people will more likely notice. Although nothing will come close to Coca Cola’s iconic red can and unique bottle design, but to keep current everyone needs to do a little bit of reinvention every now and then, even the popular kids.